The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family.
A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir
the biblical institution whereby a man must marry the widow of his childless brother in order to maintain the brother's line
Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with, a law of the ancient Israelites and other tribes and races, according to which a woman, whose husband died without issue, was married to the husband's brother
{i} custom which required that a man marry his brother's widow if the deceased died childless (Biblical)